FIA, ACI and the city of Rome unite on Road Safety

FIA President and United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt and ACI President Angelo Sticchi Damiani met with Virginia Raggi, the Mayor of Rome today at the Rome Assembly, which has established a board to manage road safety, sustainable and environmental mobility, while highlighting the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic victims.

“Every year, globally, 1.25 million people lose their lives on the roads and 50 million are injured,” stated Jean Todt, FIA President and UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the City Council in Rome, also attended by Angelo Sticchi Damiani, President of the Automobile Club d’Italia, which met to establish a city commission to manage road safety, sustainable and environmental mobility. “Road crashes are among the top ten causes of death on this planet, and the major cause of deaths among young people aged between 15 and 29. In Italy alone in 2015, there were 3,400 deaths and 250,000 injuries, an increase compared to a consistent reduction over the previous fifteen years. In Rome, there has been a worrying increase, from 140 to 173 deaths in the last three years. Unlike many other illnesses, there is a vaccine: education, law enforcement, safer road infrastructures and vehicles and a better post-crash care.”

The meeting got underway with the Mayor, Virginia Raggi expressing her “great satisfaction for the unanimous approval of the motion that tasks the Council with marking the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic victims, welcoming the efforts of the United Nations which have declared the 8th to 14th May to be world safety week: an amazing achievement which transcends all political divides.” She added, “today we have also approved an agreement with the Automobile Club d’Italia which establishes the basis of institutional synergies, not just in the fight against road crashes, but more generally in promoting a responsible mobility, efficient and sustainable. The roads are not just for cars, but also for pedestrians, cyclists, little children. Everyone who moves around the city has the right to do so in safe and protected areas. Having road safety as one of the City Council’s programmes is one of our first major steps towards achieving this.”

“We have been working on road safety for over 110 years,” said Angelo Sticchi Damiani, President of the Automobile Club d’Italia, speaking in the Giulio Cesare Hall. “One of the many tangible results of our efforts is the futuristic ACI-SARA Centre for Safe Driving at Vallelunga, on the outskirts of the city. Here, we teach youngsters and others the techniques of responsible driving and the value of sustainable mobility. At the wheel of the Centre’s cars, the youngsters are made aware of their true ability at the wheel, which they often overestimate with usually tragic results, especially in urban areas, which is where we see 40% of road deaths. To fight against this social ill takes particular care and attention and continuous investment, using revenues generated by fines.”

Mayor Raggi also stressed the importance of education: “all newly qualified drivers should have to take courses in safe driving, repeated over time, to make youngsters more aware of the risks on the road, preparing them to tackle unexpected situations at the wheel as effectively as possible.”